I think it has to do with the English love of history, whereas a certain generation prior to mine in the US is (or was) all about Progress with a capital P, which saw the Automobile as Progress, which means trains are anachronisms to be swept away.

robertjohndavis

Post subject: Re: Doing "The Ton"

Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2017 9:25 pm

Joined: Mon Aug 23, 2004 8:10 amPosts: 2423

And they have the Heritage Lottery supporting steam, plus a government network favorable to things like doing the ton.

Rob

_________________Rob

WVNorthern

Post subject: Re: Doing "The Ton"

Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2017 11:12 pm

Joined: Sat Nov 28, 2015 7:28 pmPosts: 310Location: Northern WV

"Doing the ton" in modern urban language means going 100mph most often on a cafe racer type motorcycle.

From Wikipedia:

In Britain, a ton is colloquially used to refer to 100 of a given unit. Ton can thus refer to a speed of 100 miles per hour, and is prefixed by an indefinite article, e.g. "Lee was doing a ton down the motorway"; to money e.g. "How much did you pay for that?" "A ton" (£100); to 100 points in a game e.g. "Eric just threw a ton in our darts game" (in some games, e.g. cricket, more commonly called a century); or to a hundred of any other countable figure.

_________________Roger Cole

R. Hahn

Post subject: Re: Doing "The Ton"

Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2017 7:34 am

Joined: Sun Aug 22, 2004 5:01 pmPosts: 102

robertjohndavis wrote:

And they have the Heritage Lottery supporting steam, plus a government network favorable to things like doing the ton.

While the Heritage Lottery Fund helps some projects, keep in mind that Tornado was built without any Heritage Lottery money.

In case anyone didn't read the articles about this run, it was not just for publicity. Traffic on the privatized rail networks has been increasing to a point where it is difficult to fit in mainline steam excursions which are limited to 75mph. This run was done as part of an effort to get the limit raised to 90mph to allow more scheduling and route options.

70000

Post subject: Re: Doing "The Ton"

Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2018 2:42 am

Joined: Sun Apr 05, 2015 1:28 amPosts: 307Location: Ipswich, UK

In case the news hasn't filtered across the Atlantic yet, yesterday was the first scheduled 90 mph passenger carrying run by Tornado on a trip from London to York.It appeared to reach a maximum of 92mph at one point heading northwards, (from what I have seen online) but shortly afterwards suffered a fairly major failure of its inside motion and had to be dragged by a rescue diesel as far as Peterborough where it was removed from the train.Lots of "wibble" on the rail forums over here as to what exactly happened, but nothing much in the way of official announcements as yet......

Very sorry to read about Tornado’s mishap. A google search turned up one blurry photo showing what appears to be some of the inside valve linkage adjacent to the tracks. Hopefully the damage is not too severe.

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